Solving Problems versus Selling Products

Does your company solve a problem or sell a product? When times are good, the two missions may appear the same, but when
times are hard, differences will become obvious.

The company whose mission it is to solve a problem embraces change, pivots with it, and works toward a future in which
their customers have fewer problems. Will their business look the same in ten years? Don’t ask them: they operate like a
good defense, responding to the necessities of the surrounding environment surrounding, possibly changing the plan
totally.

The company whose mission is to sell a product fights change, because change perturbs the existing market base, and that
creates risk. Their goal is to temporarily solve the effects of a problem, not to remove the problem. If you remove the
problem entirely, why would anyone need your product? Will their business look the same in ten years? They hope so. That
way the product production can be put on autopilot while they grow business by pursuing other products in other areas.

This distinction is important because it is a choice that must be made early on in a company’s growth, but it is one
that probably won’t be noticed until much later in your company’s timeline. It’s an abstract decision and a deep one, a
decision that will affect your entire company culture.

Intuit, apparently, has chosen to sell a
product, as the LA Times reports. California is working on some great options
to help its citizens file taxes for free, and Intuit, maker of the TurboTax program, has been spending barrels of money
to prevent Californians from getting access to free and easy tax filing services. Intuit has demonstrated that their
mission is not to solve the problem of complicated taxes – it is to sell you a product.
What will your mission be?

A new bill in the Senate proposes to give the president the authority to shut
down the internet in the event of an emergency. A kill switch, essentially. It
will be interesting to see the debate on this, particularly from the standpoint
of how the government views its role with regard to the network infrastructure
of the country.

Newer

The battle of the geo-APIs has begun! Loopt and Foursquare out to the early
lead. Facebook hot off the starting line. Twitter revving its engines at the
gate. Geo-location APIs are going to bring about a huge, cool shift in the
types of mobile information services we can use, but they also present many
serious privacy and safety concerns that need to be carefully managed. The “if
you don’t have something to hide…” argument against privacy simply doesn’t
cut it in the real world: life and relationships are complex. Sometimes privacy
lets you just be alone when you want to be alone, other times it can save your
life.